How to find a really great strawberry!

[Petee]

Grow it yourself!  I occasionally buy a container of strawberries hoping for a tasty piece of the fruit I remember from my childhood.  I know I do NOT like anything flavored like strawberries.  Nothing.  Even the ones I buy are rarely delicious, just ok or when crushed, terrible because they taste and smell like mint!

Maybe this is my clue to just buck up and plant more of my own.

The Elusive Flavor of Strawberries: Uncovering the Mystery - CookingPro

[Polo]

I have had great luck with an Amish grower this past few years.  The berries are lovely and the flavor is great.  And they cost less, too.

[Petee]

I have an order coming from the internet.  I may get a small crop this fall.  Can't wait.  It will be my reward for going to the chicken coop for eggs.

[Polo]

Let us know how it works out!  

[Petee]

My daughter gave me one of those towers that's a tall as me.  I grew strawberries in it before with good results but I've not been going out of the house for a couple of months except for shopping and church. I fell and hurt my back, and the hospital can't get me in for a Cat Scan till mid-July.  X rays say I have a vertebra sliding off of the one below it. 

My garden isn't even planted although one of my Amish friends will be coming in a couple of days to weed and plant.  This really sucks!  I'm using my deck gardens for some small stuff instead of flowers.  The plants leftover from the plant sale can fill in the small gaps.  Yes, I still haven't been able to dump them.  

The Strawberry plants I bought locally were all moldy and wouldn't grow.  I potted them individually till I could get down to the garden but no grow!

[Constitutionalist]

While we’re talking about growing things.. We have a strawberry plant from last year that grew 2 berries this year! Haha home grown are so much tastier for sure!
 

last year my garden grew 8 tomato plants on its own. must of been seeds mixed in the compost 
 

this year… I have a HUGE pumpkin plant growing out of the compost pile!! 
 

The Magic Continues! #magic #garden #shorts #fypage

 

[Polo]

I hope you get things fixed up with your back, Petie.  Its awful to have issues like that.  I have had some similar things in the past year.  Takes awhile to get relief and even now have to still deal with issues.  After the age of 60, issues seem to come more often than not.  I will be interested in seeing some strawberry pics and hopefully pumpkin pics from Petie and Constitutionalist later on.  My hubby calls the tomatoes and other plants from the compost "volunteers."  HaHa!

[Petee]

Volunteers from anything are great!  I couldn't get the potatoes from coming back every year in my raised bed.  We dug them clean, we thought!  The trouble is that we don't eat a lot of potatoes so the last of them would rot. 

This year I have plants left over from the plant sale so I'm sorting out what will still grow and produce.  The Sweet Potatoes are amazing.  When I rolled the tray of plants over, still in their paper pots, they all had small sweet potatoes growing them.

The green peppers have small fruits on them, and the huge Ox Hart tomatoes that a local family grew for over 33 years  and gave me seeds from are finally starting blossoms.  I also have Brussels Sprouts that will produce late in the fall and some Kohlrabi that I can plant in the shade.

I love gardening, especially starting my own plants from seeds.  

 

[Polo]

Kohlrabi bring back memories.  My great gram used to grow them and every time I would visit in harvest season, I would ask her if I could eat one.  She was in her 80's.  At that time, older women still wore house dresses, rolled down nylons, and 1 inch heels out in the garden.  She would go out there and pull one out for me and peel it.  And I would eat it raw.  Tasted like cabbage.  Oh, the sweet memories.

[Petee]

Amen to all of that.  Sounds like my Grandma Clara Bundy.  Her hair was very long and she braided it into a coil around her head that looked to me like a halo.  I can still smell her fragrance when I think of her, and my mother too!  My kids still smell Vicks Lozenges when they think of her.

[Petee]

Just now, Petee said:

Amen to all of that.  Sounds like my Grandma Clara Bundy.  Her hair was very long and she braided it into a coil around her head that looked to me like a halo.  I can still smell her fragrance when I think of her, and my mother too!  My kids still smell Vicks Lozenges when they think of her.

A really good tomato sandwich reminds me of so many summer treats like homemade strawberry shortcake, all sticky and dripping with the old fashioned kind of berries with no off tastes and some wild ones tossed in.

[Illiterate]

On 7/2/2025 at 12:26 AM, Constitutionalist said:

While we’re talking about growing things.. We have a strawberry plant from last year that grew 2 berries this year! Haha home grown are so much tastier for sure!
 

last year my garden grew 8 tomato plants on its own. must of been seeds mixed in the compost 
 

this year… I have a HUGE pumpkin plant growing out of the compost pile!! 
 

The Magic Continues! #magic #garden #shorts #fypage

 

We chuck the bad tomatoes into a semi-cleared area near the edge of woods for the woodland critters.  Every year, at least a dozen tomato plants will spring up late.  They will get a couple of feet tall, assuming they dont get eaten, but typically dont do well due to weeds and lack of sunlight.  On occasion, one will survive long enough to get some flowers on them.

[Constitutionalist]

3 hours ago, Illiterate said:

We chuck the bad tomatoes into a semi-cleared area near the edge of woods for the woodland critters.  Every year, at least a dozen tomato plants will spring up late.  They will get a couple of feet tall, assuming they dont get eaten, but typically dont do well due to weeds and lack of sunlight.  On occasion, one will survive long enough to get some flowers on them.

Last year I didn’t touch the tomatoes that sprang up. Didn’t water them, didn’t do anything… ended up with 100s of tomatoes…

 

gonna have to take another video of the pumpkins… there’s at least 6 pumpkins coming so far.. 

[Petee]

When I worked for Penn State as a Master Gardener Coordinator, they said not to use any of the volunteers that came up, but I assumed that was for legal reasons.  Other than to can volunteers, not knowing if they could produce a disease from the previous year, I see no reason not to just eat them.